Bayou Salé GlassWorks

After months of work Gerald has finished his third in a set of three windows.

When he left 2 weeks ago he had only about an hours work left to go before finishing it so he was looking forward to coming in this past week to wrap it all up. But he had to miss class due to an unforeseen emergency and asked if it would be okay to come in Sunday to finish the window. Since we’ve been stuck in the shop until close to midnight almost every night this week we told him to come on in. Within an hour it was soldered and a half an hou later we got to see it cleaned and waxed.

Gerald will be taking a picture for us of the three of them hanging up next to each other but until then I’ve managed to put each separate picture I’ve taken of the windows and put them together in Photoshop. Joined together the windows span almost 6 feet.  Please remember that these 3 pictures were all taken months apart with completely different lighting so there may be some color variances (as well as a bit of burriness in the center panel due to the camera)  but you can still see what Gerald has achieved over the past few months.  Lane, this one’s for you: They look FABULOUS! Well done, Gerald. We can’t wait to see them installed…

There’s been a lot of work going on at home this past week which means that we have a lot of completed projects to show you as well as what was done in class.

Let’s start with the Amanda/Christine project. Amanda started her window last year but ended up dropping out of classes due to scheduling conflicts. When Christine resumed her classes in the afternoons she decided to finish Amanda’s window (which had only been cut out of glass and wasn’t completely ground yet). And now it’s finished! You may recall this design from early on in our Blog.

Christine also made another Airplane Kaleidoscope (known as an Aeroscope) while she was at home and it turned out just as great as the fish window did.

Then, just for good measure, she designed and made this snowman suncatcher as well. It seems to me like Christine has been VERY busy this past week. And let’s not forget all the work she’s done on her deer window that I forgot to get a picture of…

Jane P finished her Eagle windows while she was home but we don’t have any completed pictures to show you. We DO have a look at the latest Angel that Jane started making on class this week and since Denise and Christine both asked for the pattern I think we’ll be seeing a few more of these in the near future.

And speaking of Jane, the newest member of our afternoon stained glass family (Jane S) has completed her first project and we all know what that is– a Butterfly! Jane S did something a little different with hers and soldered a wire onto the bottom of the suncatcher so she could use it in a flowerpot rather than hang it in a window. It’s a new variation on an old theme, that’s for sure. Look for Jane S to start a Flower & Bird window next week.

And I believe we mentioned Denise already but we didn’t mention what she’s been doing. She started her Iris window in class last week and before the weekend was over she had completed it at home on her own. And it looks great to me! Denise is yet another student who refuses to sit at home waiting for her next stained glass class to get her fingers all ground up. lol

Grace came in with the front side of her Indian/Wolf window soldered and we added 2 borders to it which really set it off nicely. We added a final brass channel to it once all the border pieces were ground, wrapped and tacked onto the window and I suspect this will be finished next week. I think it’s going to be stunning when it is back-lit (it already does now)!

Julie sent us a picture of the window she made last week installed above her door so I just had to include the final picture of it. It really gives the door a nice traditional charm, doesn’t it?

Fran attached her border and then the channel to finish off her window’s edge and then began soldering the front of her fish window. We won’t be seeing Fran for the next two weeks as her daughter was in a car accident and Fran is going to spend some time with her to help out during this rough time. But that doesn’t mean Fran will be away from her glass work. She plans on finishing the back side of her fish, getting started on a number of Fleur De Lis windows and also start working on four 3D Stars while she’s away. We all wish Fran’s daughter our very best!

Now, I purposefully left a little space between Denise’s 2 projects so she could show people the Blog entry about her Iris if she wants to without seeing her other project which is a surprise for her husband. She’ll be working on this one in class but not at home so she can spring it on him and catch him unprepared. She’s working on a window showing 2 ducks, a male and a female, taking off about to fly. Here’s what she did this week. I think this is going to look very good because she’s doing her best to match actual duck colors for some added realism.

I purposefully saved the biggest for last this week. Janice not only has her fancy corners tacked together but her large Fleur De Lis as well so she began working on cutting the 4 large pieces of glass that join them all together. This window is huge but Janice is showing it no mercy as she whips it into shape. I suspect she’ll have the corners in place next week as well as an inner beveled border and then it will almost be done. I can’t wait to see this one hanging up!

Look for us again next week!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

We have another completed project this week so let’s jump in and take a look at what Julie finished while she was in.

It’s been hard to see just what she was working on with all the clear glass, but now that you can see it back lit there’s no mistaking that this is a classic design. It’s going to reside in a transom above one of the doors in her house. The black lead really contrasts perfectly with the sharp textures of the clears in this window. Great Job!

Mary Lynn got all of her flowers and leaves cut out and moved on over to the grinder. She’ll grind all of this and tack it together before she cuts out her background. This will save glass and make fitting everything so much easier. Here’s a look at the left side of her window with the humming bird and flowers ground to fit..

Janice ground and wrapped all of the pieces that she took home with her last week and I must say that she’s advanced so quickly in the past few weeks. She’s completely comfortable with the entire cutting, grinding and wrapping process and it really shows. This week she did the remaining pieces of her Fleur De Lis. We’ll have her tack it together next week along with her four corner pieces. Once that’s done the rest will be easy.

Fran has been working faster than ever and has all of her Fish window cut out. She got all of her background cut, ground, wrapped and tacked together which gave her enough time to also cut her border pieces. She took them home to wrap and there’s no doubt in my mind that she’ll be soldering this next week. Doesn’t this look great?

Denise came in and started working on an Iris window. She got the flower, leaves and vase all cut out while in class and then came in today (Friday) for the glass to make her border. I have a funny feeling this one will be hanging up VERY soon now! I didn’t manage to snap a picture before she left but I colored in the sections of the pattern that she got cut out so you see how much progress she made.

Grace filled in all her missing pieces in her window and then decided on going with a double border to finish this off. She’ll go with a thin border of white and offset it with a larger black border. She’ll be attaching the borders next week and then start soldering this piece. Talk about a striking design….

Our last window of the week belongs to Gerald. We’ll be seeing this one in full sized and lit up from behind next week for sure. His border and zinc channel is attached and he soldered the front as well three quarters of the back side of his window. Next week he’ll wash it and color it before we get to see this project wrap up for him. Remember, this is the center window of a 3 panel scene…

We also had a visit from Lane this week. He’s got some windows planned in his head so don’t be surprised to see him pop in to make a window or two in the coming months!

That about wraps it up for this week. Come back soon!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Well, we heard that Cheryl had finished her Angel last week but I never did have a finished picture until now. I have to admit that taking pictures during night class has become much easier now that we have a window in the place that allows us to get a back lit image. And Photoshop does wonders with the background as well….

Mary Lynn wasted no time when she came in. She cut out 2 humming birds, a butterfly and the remaining ribbons in her address window. She took it home to possible get some grinding done as well. Once she gets the flowers and leaves cut out she will grind and wrap it so we can cut the background from the actual glass pieces. This makes grinding the background almost pain free.

Grace got a lot of work done while she was at home last week. She managed to grind and wrap all of her window except for the wolves (which she didn’t have cut out). The wolves are all cut now and so are the Indians lips (they were fun trying to come up with a color for). That means that all she needs to cut out is a border. I forgot to take a picture of her window before she left so here’s a look at what it looked like last week.

I also forgot to get a picture of Janice’s window. She had all her corners ground and wrapped so she began cutting out the large Fleur de Lis that will be in the center of her window. She’s cutting it out of 3 different types of clear glass and she’s almost ready to grind it. I’ve touched up the pattern from last week so you can see what she accomplished this week while in class. Although it’s a big window there aren’t that many pieces in it so she’s really getting this done quickly.

Gerald has cut the last of the glass on his window. All he needs to do is attach his border and start soldering! I’m betting that when he comes in he’ll discover that his Zinc Channel will already be on so he can jump right in on his soldering.

Joey made excellent progress this week as well. He got his entire window ground in one night and then took it home to possibly wrap. Once it’s tacked together he’ll get a border cut and this window will be out the door! I remember when it would have taken Joey weeks to grind a window this complex!

Lastly we have Jane who cut out and ground a Bald Eagle window. She’s already talking about making a second one so we may see this one done again before too long. I have a funny feeling that when we see Jane walk in the door next week all she’ll need is a border and some channel on this to finish it off…

An that wraps it up for this week. We should see at least 1 finished project in our next entry so check back soon!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

When you are working with glass a few broken pieces are to be expected along the way. But sometimes things happen and the next thing you know you’re re-cutting pieces that have already been cut and ground. Such is the case with Grace this week. She was on her way to her car with the window that she ground at home during the week when the board it was on broke. The next thing she knew she was picking up all her pieces off the floor. When she got to class she put it all back together and surveyed the damage — There were about 20 broken pieces in all. But she buckled down, dug out the pattern pieces and had everything re-cut before she left. Even though it isn’t completely ground you can see how nice this window is turning out. At least the pieces that broke weren’t wrapped or even soldered together. I once had the top piece of a freshly soldered window come loose and watched in horror as it smashed into a thousand pieces. Only one piece was saved on that job. My hat goes off to Grace for keeping her cool and not getting all bent out of shape (when she had every right to!)

Janice was hoping to have all her corners ground but ended up being called in to work on her day off which meant that she ground her corners during class this week. Before she started I stressed how important it was that she make all her curves fluid and graceful by eliminating any rough areas and rounding out anything even remotely out of the lines. And Janice did WONDERFULLY! All her corners are ground and they all flow smoothly. Here’s one of the four she completed this week. Next week she’ll begin the center Fluer De Lis.

Mary Lynn did some minor redesign work on her window. We had added a butterfly to the original flower design but we changed the butterfly to a side view this week (the pattern she’s doing is on the left). After that was finished she began cutting glass and managed to knock out all of the hardest sections of her window– the letters and numbers. It’s looking good already…

Joey started by cutting the Orange and White sections of his window. We laughed about how he managed to get 2 of his colors completely cut out in under 10 minutes but it’s no laughing matter that he managed to cut out all of his blue glass as well. And trust me when I say that there’s a lot of blue pieces in it. He’s only got the yellow letters left to do next week and then he’ll be grinding.

Gerald has all of his window cut out! With only two small borders left to go on the top and the bottom, he’ll be soldering this in his next class. I can’t wait to see the three windows all next to each other and that will be soon now.

Winding up this entry is a window I made for someone up in Delaware. I thought it ended up looking very striking and elegant and wanted to give the students who weren’t in this week a chance to see it.

That brings us up to date again.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Let’s start with a Spiritual Theme this time around.  We have a finished window by Jane and I think the subject needs no introduction.  It hardly took her any time to do and the work, as always, is spectacular.

Then we have a fitting companion piece made by Cheryl.  It hasn’t been washed yet, but I think you’ll get the idea.  We found the pattern for it on the internet.  Just look at all the detail in this angel.  And the real beauty of it is that her cutting required hardly any grinding at all to get this to fit together.

And our last Spiritual entry this week is a second Angel made by Jane while she was home last week.  She’s taken quite a fancy to the one that Cheryl made and has decided to do one of those next.

Next we’ll take a look at the Owl that Fran had made right before Christmas.  She had some doubts about the face appearing to be non-symmetrical so this week she knocked out the right side of its face and straightened it out more to her liking.  I didn’t see a problem with it before but applaud her for sticking to her guns and taking the time to make it look better to her.  When she was finished she ended up with this:

Gerald almost finished the glass cutting on his window this week.  With only the sky left to go and a few pieces of the houses we’ll be seeing this soldered soon now.  I suspect we’ll have one more week of cutting and then this will almost be ready for hanging in his home.  Pretty soon we’ll get to see the set of three windows together…

Grace cut the black out for her window which leaves her with only the wolves left to cut.  Rather than continue cutting she decided to take a bit of a break by spending some time grinding what she has already cut.  It’s a good way to relieve the boredom  of non-stop cutting each week.  This is another window that I really like.

Joey was in and started working on a logo inspired window for a company.  Taken from a shirt he brought in with him we were able to get a beautiful pattern drawn.  It’s too bad I forgot to take a picture of it before he left!  Here’s the basic idea of it although the finished pattern is circular in design.  Look for a colored picture next week!

I guess we’ll be ending this entry with a look at the patterns that were started this week.  The next one up is Mary Lynn’s Address Window that she began working on.   It’s got flowers, humming birds, a butterfly and two ribbon banners that show a name and house numbers.

Saving the biggest for last we have Janice’s Fleur De Lis Window that measures about 4 foot wide!  This one ought to be spectacular!  She cut the corners out before she left but again, I forgot to take pictures.  :-(  Be sure to click on the picture below to really appreciate this design (the thumbnail doesn’t really show much).

Lastly, we had a new student this week.  Another Jane (Jane#2?) who began working a her first project, a butterfly suncatcher.  Since she had to leave early we’ll wait and show you her project when she finishes it during her next class.

And speaking of next class– we have Mardi Gras interfering with out weekly schedule.  We’ll try to juggle around the schedule to make up for the holiday cutting into 2 classes.

We’ll see you in the next Blog entry!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks 

It’s been a VERY hectic week here which may explain why I am posting last week’s blog the night before our new set of classes.

Mary Lynn has finished her Spiritual Window and it looks better than I ever thought.  I have to apologies to her because I was hoping to get the faces drawn in during the week but it never happened.  It looks like that will be done Tuesday afternoon before she comes in for evening class.

Janice finished her Layla Ladybug window while at home and all we really needed to do were a few minor touch ups and add some hooks.  Her workmanship, like Mary Lynn’s, has improved so much it isn’t even funny.  I barely had to go over either of their windows!

Our next finished project for this week comes by way of email from Ellen who made this Fleur De Lis Corner Piece while she was at home.  As always, her work is spot on!

Julie finished grinding and wrapping all her pieces this week and then got everything tacked together.  This one will certainly be finished during our next Blog update!

Cheryl was back in this week and stayed pretty quiet in the corner while she and Gerald wrapped their pieces of glass together.  Of course I forgot to take a picture of what she accomplished so I’ll share one of the pictures that I took the week before of her angel with an interesting face painted on it.  Rest assured that it will change when the Angel is completed…

After Gerald finished wrapping the pieces he had cut out he finished cutting out the rest of the tree that runs along the top of his window.  All he has left to go is his house and some pieces of sky and this window will be complete!

Christine picked out a deer pattern for her latest project.  We drew up the pattern from a catalog and then she picked all the glass for it.  It will be ineteresting to see what she walks in the door with tomorrow…

Grace continued cutting away at glass for her Indian Window.  There’s not all that much left to go and to help speed things up she’s taken it home with her to grind what she has already cut.  Maybe it’s me but this window seems to have a lot of depth to it.  It must be the good choice of colors!

Our last window belongs to Jane.  She made terrific progress while at home and all we needed to do when she came in was to decide on two colors for her border.  Looking at the picture I’d say that she chose the correct colors, wouldn’t you?  Look to see this one lit up in our next Blog update!

My apologies for not getting this out quicker– it’s been a very busy week here but we did managed to get 8 windows completed (with 4 of them being about 6 feet by 2 feet).  I just got them washed and waxed today so look for pictures of them here soon.

Janice and Mary Lynn, I have your new patterns almost completely drawn out and will finish them before you get in on Tuesday night!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks 

Ellen wasn’t with us in person this week but through the magic of email she’s managed to make it into the blog anyway! She did this address number project at home and came up with a way to mount it into the ground all on her own. Like always, her work is flawless and the sign looks great. Click the second photo to see what it looks like in a yard.

Janice wrapped the remaining pieces of her project, attached a border and took her Ladybug window home to solder. I remember when it would have taken her 8 weeks to get this window completed and she’ll have it done in less than half that time now. She’ll be picking a new pattern next week when we see this window hanging up completed.  The border color was up in the air until we all saw the orange glass next to the window.  THere was no doubt that Orange was what it needed.

Meanwhile, Mary Lynn finished up the fancy border on her Spiritual window. I steered her wrong by cutting 4 pieces the wrong size last week so we had to remove and then replace them at one point.  Luckily the entire removal process took under one minute to do and allowed us to use squares to make sure her window corners were perfect 90 degree angles so I guess it actually worked out for the best. Mary Lynn will be soldering the back side at home so we should see this finished very soon now.

Gerald got all the pieces wrapped that he had completed last week. Then he moved on to cutting the trees and some of the background. There are only about 30 pieces left to go before he adds the final border (on the top and bottom) of this window so we’ll be seeing the finished in the near future.  I personally can’t wait to see the the 3 windows next to each other so we can see the full effect.

Grace worked on cutting the trees, sky and large wolf head in her Indian scene window. I like the way she made this a darker piece rather than something bright with a sun in the sky– it really gives it a preternatural feel. And it’s fitting together wonderfully so she shouldn’t have to grind very long to get this all together.

When Jane saw the Spiritual scene that Mary Lynn was working on she decided that she wanted to do something similar. She didn’t want to do the same window but rather something in a similar theme. Since Mary Lynn had given me a few pictures to draw a pattern from for her window I just took another picture from the pile  and came up with this pattern that Jane began working on. She had come in on Monday to pick up the pattern so she could trace it out and cut out all the paper pattern pieces while she was at home. When she came in she had her glass pretty much picked out and she began cutting away. By the time she left she had the hardest parts completed. It’s hard to tell in the photo but the face and neck are cut out as well as all the hair. I can only imagine how far along this will be when she comes back in next Tuesday.

It would appear that we have an infectious spiritual feeling around the shop because our next project has a heavenly aspect to it as well. Cheryl had cut out this angel 2 weeks ago but missed class last week due to the fact that she was too busy laughing and having a good time on yet another Cruise. Alas, this week she was sick and therefore she couldn’t make it in. However, since her husband Joey also does stained glass she just sent him in her place and he got all of the angel ground. And let’s not forget that their daughter Danielle also does stained glass. This is a family with glass in their veins! Here’s the angel as it stands today.  It looks great, doesn’t it?  Look for it to be tacked together next week.

I think that covers everyone that was here this week. Julie’s away on vacation and should be back next week along with Christine and Mark. So we’ll have more to show you then!
See you in a week!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

With 2 relatively small classes spread out as far as they could be I seem to have forgotten to do the blog this week! Better late than never though…

Let’s start with Ellen’s latest project– 3 Mardi Gras masks. She cut them out, ground them and wrapped them at home so when she came in all she had to do was add the globs in the upper corners of the masks and then solder them at angles to give them a 3D curve. After they were soldered we added the twisted wire handles and called them finished! I wish you could see just how curved these pieces are so you could REALLY appreciate them.

Gerald said that when he looked at the blog last week he thought that the flowers he had cut out looked lifeless and dead.  So when he came in he set about fixing that by cutting new ones.  Sometimes you can’t really see what your window is shaping up to look like until you get away from it for a day or step back to take in the big picture.  Once he pointed it out to me I have to say that I agree with him.  Gerald also re-trimmed the edge pieces of his window because we had drawn them wider on the pattern so we could make adjustments for a precise fit.   Now that we have the finished size of his first 2 sections we were able to determine just how wide the actual glass had to be.  Don’t his flowers look bright and alive this week? 

While Ellen was working on her masks Julie was busy cutting the remaining pieces to her traditional styled stained glass window.  She not only got it all cut out but she also managed to grind about half of it.  Julie will be tacking this one together soon which means we’ll be able to hold it up and get a good look at it!

When Janice left last week she had cut the top section of her Ladybug window.  When she came back this week she had it all ground, wrapped and ready to be tacked together!  After she tacked it she moved onto cutting out the LAYLA bottom section of her window.  She traced it, cut it and then proceeded to grind most of it as well.  She moves along quickly now that she’s become comfortable with the glass.  Next week well add the borders and start soldering.

Mary Lynn filled in the few missing pieces to her Spiritual Window which included the tricky eye pieces for the two animals.  One that was finished she came up to another big decision– how to do the borders.  After some serious consideration she picked a tricky triple border done with a wide royal blue inner border surrounded by two thin bands of ruby red glass.  These borders sound simple enough to make but there’s a lot of precise measuring to get them spaced correctly since there are red pieces interspersed within the blue section of the border.  This may not make much sense but you’ll see when it’s all together next week.  Mary Lynn has the first two borders cut and ground and took them home to wrap.

Grace picked a great looking Indian themed design for her next project and got her second pattern all traced and cut up.  Next week she’ll trace her pieces out onto the glass and begin cutting glass.

Lastly, we have a finished window  from Tommy who worked on this one at home.  He drew it up the pattern himself and finished it inside of a week.  Tommy is always working on something at home and when we see finished results we’ll be sure to post them here so you can see what he’s doing as well.

We have classes starting up again in just 2 days so check back again to see what’s happening here.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

With the holidays falling on class days we’ve had 2 very easy weeks with only a handful of students able to attend. I’m sure things will be back to normal next week though.

Mary Lynn made it in and surprised me by having her window ground wrapped and ready for tacking! There are only about 5 pieces that need to be re-cut to get it to fit together properly and she’ll be adding a border to this next week. She took it home and will be soldering the front side of it there. I can’t wait to see this with the borders on it…

Meanwhile Janice began working on a Ladybug window. The pattern is very light and colorful with some daisies thrown into the background to brighten it up. The name ‘Layla’ will be added to the bottom of the window but Janice will work on the two sections as if they were separate windows and then join them together at the end. She got all the top section cut in one night and has taken it home with her to grind during the week. She worried about cutting glass again since she’s been soldering for the past 5 weeks or so but she cut this out faster than anything else she’s done yet!

Lastly we have a look at the newest window that Julie is making. It’s a very traditional design of a repeated curve which makes a unique pattern when it’s finished. You’ve seen it in countless stained glass windows. It’s usually done in one of two ways: A) All in one color or B) in various textures of clear glass. Julie has opted for the later and got probably half of her window cut out in just this one class. The computer certainly came in handy (as it did with Janice’s window) for picking out the color/texture scheme. Although it will be hard to see what she’s accomplished since you can see through the pieces she’s cut you’ll just have to take my word for it when I say that it’s going to look great when it’s not laying on a table. I forgot to ask if she’ll be finishing the finished lead in black, silver or copper…

That’s it for this week. Look for full classes next week with a lot more pictures!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks